Even if the watermark only discloses the bookstore where the book was purchased, I don't see how the bookstore has any right to disclose information about the purchaser in the absence of a subpoena.

Depends on the privacy policy of the bookstore. If their policy is "we can share your data with third-party organizations as we deem necessary for the health of our business," or something like that, they can hand it over to anyone they want. The EFF has an ongoing campaign to sort out which sites and platforms are user-friendly vs "just hand over the data to anyone who says he needs it for legal reasons."

We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our Conditions of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Amazon.com, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Emphasis added. "Protect the rights or safety of others" is a broad category. That means Amazon can share your personal purchase history and whatever other data they have, if they say it was for the purpose of ending fraud or protecting someone's rights. They certainly *don't* say that they only release personal data after a subpoena or other official legal order.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catlady

So you're telling me that all the books on the file-sharing sites and in the torrents have identifiying information that can be traced back to individual sources? Then why aren't the publishers/authors going after those specific individuals?

Because there's no direct evidence that those specific individuals copied or distributed the files. (There isn't with watermarking, either; all it is, is a way to find out who *might* be responsible for copyright infringement.) "I found a file with your name on it listed on a torrent network" is nowhere near as direct as "I found a knife with your fingerprints on it at the crime scene"--and even if they do believe that person shared the files, if the other files in a given collection are not also marked the same way, those can't easily be included in the same complaint.

Stripped-DRM ebooks may-or-may-not have identifying data in them. It depends on the exact method used to place the DRM, and the method used to remove it... and whether and how the file has been altered after that. Some metadata will remain through multiple conversions; other is lost after a single shift.

But for user security, there is no difference between a DRM'd file and a watermarked file; if you don't know what info the seller is putting into the file, you don't know what info remains while you're using it.